Human Responsibility

Humanity's Gifts

“Human beings have a characteristic ergon (purpose). The human [purpose] cannot be bodily growth since it is shared with plants. Nor could it be the capacity of perception, because other animals have that. The [purpose] of human beings is rational activity.”

                                                    Aristotle

I watched a television show the other night about chimpanzees and bonobos, our closest relatives in the animal kingdom. I was quite surprised by what they are able to do simply by imitation—everything from developing and using simple tools, to memorizing the sequence of numbers and even some deductive reasoning. They can act cooperatively, play creatively, and follow instructions showing obvious understanding of human speech. They love, they grieve, and they display emotions. They are able to problem solve and ask for help when they need it—and I've known a few humans who can't seem to get that.

According the the research, what other primates can not do that human beings can is teach one another, and build on the skills of previous generations. We humans have grown from bi-winged aircraft to unmanned drones in one hundred years. We've gone from hand-cranked cars to electric vehicles in the same period of time, and from plug-in party-lines to cellular telephones in half a century. Each generation builds upon and improves the inventions of the ones before. We humans teach our children, and one another, in very conscious ways.

It seems to me, too, that our tendency toward spirituality is a defining characteristic. Regardless of where we arose on the planet, since the earliest of times, we have generated a consciousness of something greater than ourselves, something both fearsome and beyond our comprehension. Something that connects us with our past and our future, something sacred, both within and without. Our ability to comprehend this abstract awareness is quintessentially human. 

I visited the fresco's of Ben Long in two tiny churches in West Jefferson, NC yesterday, and got a first hand taste of another human-only expression—art that moves the soul. Whether visual art or music, poetry or dance, only humans can consciously point the way to that which is beyond all understanding. Which is why we have a responsibility to do exactly that.

                                              In the spirit,

                                                 Jane